‘Salt Path’ Controversy and Author Raynor Winn’s Response: Us Explains
Raynor Winn’s 2018 memoir The Salt Path has been shrouded in controversy following the release of a film adaptation starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs.
The book — which was nominated for the prestigious Wainwright Prize — chronicled Raynor and husband Moth on a 630-mile walk across South West England after their 17th-century farmhouse foreclosure.
Key elements of Raynor and Moth’s story — including their real names — have been called into question by British publication The Observer. A former employer has accused the author of stealing as much as $86,900 from business accounts, while doubts have been cast over Raynor’s description of her husband Moth’s health.
The writer responded to growing skepticism over key details in The Salt Path by insisting that the book was an accurate depiction of her life.
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“The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me, after we lost our home and found ourselves homeless on the headlands of the south west,” she wrote in a statement via her website on Wednesday, July 9. “It’s not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope.”
Keep scrolling for the full story of The Salt Path and the ongoing backlash.
‘The Salt Path’
Raynor’s 2018 breakthrough memoir and travelog was marketed as the true story of her and husband Moth’s long-distance walk across the South West Coast Path, England’s longest waymarked footpath, in the wake of losing their home.
In The Salt Path, Raynor writes that a bad decision to invest with a longtime friend — who she calls Cooper to “protect” his family’s identity — caused the Winns to lose substantial sums of money when Cooper’s business failed and they were held liable for his debts.
Around the same time, Moth was reportedly diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which according to the Mayo Clinic is “a rare disease that causes areas of the brain to shrink.”
Faced with losing their dream home and Moth’s declining health, the Winns chose to walk the 630-mile South West footpath, living off the meager tax credits they earned every week.
The Salt Path concludes with some hope for the Winns, as they are offered new accommodations and Moth’s health improves as a result of the long-distance walk.
Raynor wrote two follow-up books about homelessness and long-distance walking — 2020’s The Wild Silence and 2021’s Landlines. A film adaptation of The Salt Path, starring Anderson and Isaacs, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014, before it arrived in U.K. theaters in May 2025.
Controversy
An investigative report by The Observer revealed alleged discrepancies in the Winns’ story, right down to their names. According to the public record, Moth and Raynor Winn’s real names are Tim and Sally Ann Walker.
The Salt Path’s claim that the Winns lost their dream home due to a bad investment has also been called into question. A former business associate, Ros Hemmings, alleged that Raynor worked as a bookkeeper for her family business until Ros’ husband Martin Hemmings allegedly discovered that $12,200 (or £9,000) was missing from company accounts in 2008. Raynor was accused of failing to deposit large sums of cash in the Hemmingses’ business account. (Raynor denies all allegations put forth by Ros.)
When Raynor was confronted, Ros alleged that the Salt Path author offered to sell her mother’s wedding dress to pay back a portion of the $12,200 owed. However, Hemmings eventually went to police after realizing that as much as $86,900 (£64,000) may have been stolen from company accounts. (Raynor allegedly disappeared before any criminal proceedings could move forward.)
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“We kept looking back [through the accounts],” Hemmings told the outlet. “In the end, I think it was around £64,000 she’d nicked over the previous few years.”
The Observer reported that the Winns later borrowed $135,900 (£100,000) to pay back their debt, only for their house to be repossessed. This repossession allegedly took place because the sum the couple owed was more than their $312,580 (£230,000) mortgage.
There have been doubts about Moth’s CBD diagnosis as well. According to Britain’s National Health Service, those suffering from CBD typically have a life expectancy of six to eight years from their diagnosis, yet the exposé claimed that Moth has seemingly survived 18 years without any “visible acute symptoms. “
Winn wrote in her Salt Path follow-up book, Landlines, that recent brain scans have shown “a distinct reduction in [Moth’s] receptor cells,” yet he registered “a normal reading” after undertaking another long-distance walking trip.
“We do know that neuroplasticity exists, although we know very little about it,” she writes. “We used to think the Earth was flat. We used to think no universe existed beyond our own.”
Prof Michele Hu of Oxford University told The Observer that she was “very skeptical” that Moth does have CBD because she’d “never looked after anyone that’s lived that long.”
Raynor’s Response
Raynor called The Observer’s report “grotesquely unfair [and] highly misleading,” in addition to accusing the website of trying to “systematically pick apart [her] life.”
“The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me, after we lost our home and found ourselves homeless on the headlands of the south west,” she wrote in a statement via her website on July 9. “It’s not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope. The journey held within those pages is one of salt and weather, of pain and possibility. And I can’t allow any more doubt to be cast on the validity of those memories, or the joy they have given so many.”
The author released what she says are “two clinical letters” from Britain’s National Health Service that she says verify Moth’s corticobasal degeneration diagnosis.
“The diagnosis doesn’t come from a simple test, but rather from a long and complex route of observation, where sufferers may have symptoms for many years before they finally reach a diagnosis,” she wrote. “Even then, many sufferers’ symptoms present in an atypical way. They might not present with the same symptoms, occurring in the same order, or with the same severity. As I’ve explained many times in my books, we will always be grateful that Moth’s version of CBS is indolent, its slow progression (P15 The Salt Path) has allowed us time to discover how walking helps him. Others aren’t so lucky. “
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The writer continued. “The effect of the suggestion that Moth has made up this condition has been absolutely traumatizing for him. Suggestions made by people, who do not know him, have never met him, and have never seen his medical records. But even worse, is the effect on those sufferers who have looked to Moth as a beacon of hope. The hope that, maybe not now, maybe not for them, but at some point in the future, we might find some answers to this condition that has no treatment, and no cure.”
Addressing the theft allegations, Raynor maintained that her legal dispute with the Hemmingses was “not the court case [depicted] in The Salt Path,” nor did it “result in [the couple] losing [their] home.” She added, “Mr. Hemmings is not Cooper. Mrs. Hemmings is not in the book, nor is she a relative of someone who is.”
The Salt Path author confirmed that the Hemmingses did file a police report against her, but countered: “I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions. I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened.”
“The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties; Mr Hemmings was as keen to reach a private resolution as I was,” she said. “A part of that settlement was that I would pay money to Mr Hemmings on a ‘non-admissions basis’. This is why we needed the money back from Cooper that we invested.”
As for the loss of her home, Raynor said the foreclosure was indeed the result of a failed business loan with the “lifetime friend” she refers to as “Cooper.” She called the accusation that the Winns used “pseudonyms” to avoid debts “particularly surprising.”
“As the Observer has, so intrusively, entered every other area of my life, they could have run a simple credit check against me and Moth. Had they done so, they would have found we have no debts,” she insisted.
She later clarified, “Let me explain my names. Winn is my maiden name and like most women who have married I’ve used both my maiden name, Winn, and married name, Walker. In the early years after Moth and I met, I told him I disliked my name Sally Ann, it made me think of ringlets and gingham dresses, and how I wished I’d been given the family name of Raynor. From then on, he called me Ray. It is the name many people who are close to me have known me by, and the name I love and chose as my pen name. Moth is just an abbreviation of his name – Timothy.”
Nevertheless, Raynor cancelled a planned U.K. tour with the Gigspanner Big Band to read portions of The Salt Path in front of live audiences. Her spokesperson confirmed that Raynor is “deeply sorry to let down those who were planning to attend the Saltlines Tour, but while this process is ongoing, she will be unable to take part.”
Other Responses
A spokesperson for Number 9 Films, which produced The Salt Path movie, told Us Weekly that the movie is “a faithful adaptation of the book” it optioned.
“The allegations made in The Observer relate to the book and are a matter for the author Raynor Winn,” a spokesperson for the company responded. “We have passed any correspondence relating to the article to Raynor and her agent. “
Number 9’s representative stressed to Us that there were “no known claims against the book at the time of optioning it or producing and distributing the film.”
“We undertook all necessary due diligence before acquiring the book,” the company said. “The journalist contacting us about the story at the end of last week was the first time we were made aware of the allegations.”
Likewise, publisher Penguin insisted to BBC News that it “undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence” prior to publishing The Salt Path. Penguin confirmed it had a “a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and [the book received] a legal read, as is standard with most works of non-fiction.”
“Prior to the Observer enquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book’s content,” a Penguin spokesperson said.
In the wake of the scandal, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Association UK (PSPA), a charitable organization that supports people with CBD, announced it would no longer work with the Winns.
“Raynor and Moth worked with many individuals and organisations since their first book was published, including PSPA,” the group said in a statement. “We received the family’s need for support, and desire to raise awareness of PSP & CBD in good faith. Whilst we are thankful for the awareness opportunities their story has provided; too many questions currently remain unanswered. Therefore, we have made the decision to terminate our relationship with the family.”
The PSPA response concluded, “In the meantime, we want to reassure supporters that any fundraising Raynor and Moth conducted for PSPA was via official platforms such as JustGiving and monies raised have been received in full by the charity.”
Us has reached out to representatives Anderson and Isaacs for comment.
